---
name: "Joseph L. Scanlan"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/joseph-l-scanlan"
roles: ["Director"]
born: "16 August 1929"
died: "18 December 2020"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
updated: "2026-09-16T23:43:05.605736+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Joseph L. Scanlan

Director. Born 16 August 1929 in Brooklyn. Died 18 December 2020.

## Details

- **Work:** Director
- **Born:** 16 August 1929, Brooklyn
- **Died:** 18 December 2020

## Biography

Joseph L. Scanlan (1929–2020) was an American television director. He began his career in the 1950s and became the primary director of the NBC soap opera *Somerset* (1970–76), helming the majority of its episodes.

Scanlan later directed individual episodes of numerous series, including four episodes of *Star Trek: The Next Generation* (1988–89), as well as work on *Quantum Leap* (1989), *The Outer Limits* (1995), *Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman* (1993), *La Femme Nikita* (1997) and *Earth: Final Conflict* (1997). His final credit was an episode of *Flatland* in 2002.

He received a Gemini Award nomination for directing on *The Outer Limits* and directed the *Star Trek: The Next Generation* episode 'The Big Goodbye', which won a Peabody Award in 1987.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *Star Trek: The Next Generation* (1987), Fi1m 83, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/star-trek-the-next-generation.md)

## Also known for

- *Quantum Leap* (1989), Director
- *Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman* (1993), Director
- *La Femme Nikita* (1997), Director
- *The Outer Limits* (1995), Director
- *Earth: Final Conflict* (1997), Director
- *The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.* (1993), Director
- *Due South* (1994), Director
- *Falcon Crest* (1981), Director

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/joseph-l-scanlan